Decoration Deconstruction
by KateToast
Summary: If it's the weekend before the Second Annual Stars Hollow Martin Luther King Junior Appreciation Festival, it's probably time to put away those holiday decorations.


**XXX**

_January 13__th__, 2013_

"House of Depression, how can I help you?"

"Mom?"

"Yes, I believe I'll answer to that," Lorelai sighed.

"Why so glum?" Rory asked over the phone.

Lorelai glared at the scene before her from her perch on the arm of the couch. "Luke is making me take down the decorations," she pouted.

"Finally," Rory muttered, fingers jumping on her keyboard to correct a typo.

"_You_?" Luke growled at the same time, but the word was muffled since his head was practically in the dry Christmas tree. He was lying on his stomach, trying to unscrew the tree base. "You put away _four_ _ornaments_."

"It was very emotionally taxing!" Lorelai defended. "All four of them were homemade ones," she explained to Rory. "Yours and April's and Will's…"

"Aw, Mom, didn't we agree a long time ago to save the homemade ones for last? They always get to you."

"I know," Lorelai agreed with another sigh. "I am my own worst enemy."

"How's my little brother doing?"

"He's sad that Christmas is going away, too," Lorelai said, watching the boy in question wrap a strand of unplugged lights around his father's feet, frowning in concentration.

"I hope taking the decorations down before Easter doesn't scar him for life," Rory said sarcastically.

"Hey, now, what happened to the little girl who used to cry when it was time for Christmas to go bye-bye?"

"She moved out of Whoville."

"And her heart shrunk three sizes that day!"

"I'm regretting this phone call."

"Okay, okay," Lorelai conceded, "did you call for any other reason than to check in on your favorite family?"

"Yes," Rory said, tone becoming apologetic. "I wanted to give you as much notice as possible."

"Uh oh."

"I can't make it to the festival next weekend," she finished.

"What!" Lorelai huffed. Luke emerged from under the tree and glanced at her in question. "But it's the _Martin Luther King Junior festival_," she reminded her daughter, punctuating each word with obvious importance. "And it's the second year, which means it'll be better than the first!"

"I know," Rory agreed. "But Greg's parents are in town…"

"I see how it is," Lorelai said. "You're giving up the MLK Appreciation Festival to meet your boyfriend's parents!"

"Uh… yeah?"

Lorelai bit her lip. "Yeah, that's probably better," she agreed. "I'm sad you're gonna miss Taylor's second attempt at being totally politically correct – which he will fail miserably at again, I'm predicting it now. And I heard there was gonna be some sort of reenactment."

"Oh?"

"Rumor is it involves Kirk giving the 'I Have a Dream' speech."

Rory frowned. "Rats. Take a video for me?"

"Fine," Lorelai said, watching Luke fiddle with the screws on the tree base. Will, satisfied with his handiwork with the string of lights, had moved on to blanketing Paul Anka with the red tree skirt. "It sounds like you're working."

"I am, I just wanted to let you know about next weekend."

"All right, looks like I'll just have to drag Luke to it. Eating all of that dark chocolate just won't be the same, though."

"I know."

"I'll let you go – we'll talk about the meeting the parents later?"

"Definitely. Tell the boys I say hi."

"Sure thing. Bye, hon."

"Bye Mom."

Lorelai pressed "End" on her phone and threw it onto a couch cushion. "Rory says hi. She can't come next weekend." She took a sip of coffee from the mug on the low table in front of her.

Luke rolled onto his side, facing his wife. He had little green pine needles all over his flannel shirt. "Good. Taylor doesn't need any more encouragement with all his little festivals. Maybe if _no one_ shows up he'll give it a break."

"Yeah, right," Lorelai said, raising an eyebrow as she stood. "Or it'll backfire and make him _more _determined." She stepped over to her dog and her son, both of whom were watching her. "Paul Anka looks very pretty, honey," she said to Will, smoothing a hand over his light brown hair before removing the tree skirt from the thankful-looking canine. "But we're putting all of the decorations away now."

"But why?" Will asked, blue eyes wide.

"Because Christmas is over, bud," Luke explained, giving up on the tree stand for the moment. "_Long _over," he mumbled to himself. He went to get up but found his feet tangled in a string of lights. He stared at the mess, dumbfounded, before turning an accusing glare to the other two in the room. "What is this?"

Will and Lorelai shrugged simultaneously. "I think Paul Anka did it," she said. The dog whimpered, then got up and wandered out of the room. "Very guilty walk," Lorelai assured Luke, who was trying to free himself.

"No more reindeer?" Will asked.

"Not until next winter," Lorelai said, leaning to place the tree skirt in a nearby box. "But there are tons of holidays between now and then that we can decorate for!"

"Here we go," Luke said to himself. He'd finally gotten to his feet and was organizing the box of lights.

"Oh, shush," Lorelai chastised, then turned back to Will. "Daddy pretends to be such a grump, but he _loves_ holidays. And decorating. And _especially_ festivals!"

"Don't believe her, Will," Luke said.

The boy nodded seriously at his father, but once Luke's attention was diverted again Will smiled up at Lorelai, a mischievous smile she'd seen in the mirror. She grinned back at him, admiring for the zillionth time how perfect he was, just the right mix of Gilmore and Danes. She hadn't known how much she'd wanted a son until he'd come along. He crawled into her lap and leaned back against her chest as they watched Luke place the scattered decorations into their appropriate boxes.

"Rory's meeting Greg's parents," Lorelai shared, her nose in Will's soft hair, inhaling his clean smell from a recent bath.

"Oh yeah?" Luke asked. "That seems like a serious step."

"Well, he's met _us_ already."

"We live closer," Luke said. "Where's the top for this container?" he asked, pointing. Lorelai gestured behind him and he found the right cover, continuing his earlier train of thought: "Besides, I mean, we_ had_ to meet him. Feel him out."

"'Feel him out'?" Lorelai repeated, chuckling. "Look at you, all protective like she's still 16."

"Well we had to make sure he wasn't some punk, or hooligan or something."

"'_Hooligan_'?"

"Stop repeating everything I say."

Lorelai was smirking. "I bet Greg's parents aren't worried about Rory being a _hooligan_."

"Why should they? She's Rory," Luke said in a 'duh' tone, surveying the bare Christmas tree. "I'm gonna have to remove the tree from the stand outside."

"Biased, party of one," Lorelai chirped, but he ignored her. "No one's ever gonna think you're a hooligan, bud," she said to Will, who was playing with the watch on her wrist.

"They better not," Luke agreed, finally disengaging from the decoration deconstruction to sit down on the floor with them. He stretched out his legs and sighed deeply. "When did we get all this stuff?" he asked, shaking his head. "There couldn't have been this much when we moved."

"I'm pretty sure little elves have slowly been delivering it all," Lorelai said as Will left her loose embrace. He found a Spider-Man action figure on the coffee table that immediately grabbed his interest. Lorelai turned her head to the side to look at Luke. "Thank you for taking everything down," she said sincerely, knocking her shoulder against his.

"I'm pretty sure we would've been in violation of some stupid town ordinance if we'd waited any longer," Luke responded, but he smiled all the same, adjusting his blue hat with one hand. "You're welcome. Besides, I needed some time away from the town lunatics. It seems like they all move in during the winter."

"They're like hibernating bears, and the diner is their warm, safe cave," Lorelai soothed. "Don't worry; at the first sign of spring they'll be out again."

"If only," Luke gruffed.

Will's curious voice broke in. "What's this?" he asked, his nose almost in the mug of coffee.

"Not for you," Luke assured, hurrying up and over to his son. He tugged the little boy away, settling onto the couch and pulling Will with him onto his lap. "It's a grown-up drink, and not a good one."

"Aw, c'mon, babe," Lorelai teased from the floor. "I had Rory on that stuff younger than he is."

"Exactly," Luke said, and then added after a moment, "You didn't really, did you?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes and made a '_are you kidding_' face, giving him his answer. She hauled herself to her feet and made her way to the couch, collapsing beside Luke and giving Will a tickle. "I'd call this a successful day of clean up," Lorelai declared, putting her feet on the coffee table.

Luke looked at her. "We still have to put all the boxes in the basement."

"Do we _really_?" Lorelai asked. "I think they look great here. What do you think, Will? Is this the year we make the living room into a maze of boxes?"

"No," Luke answered.

"Sshh, let the boy answer for himself."

Will considered, even though he probably had little idea as to what they were talking about. "Yes!" he finally agreed, grinning at his mother.

"He _so_ likes me better," Lorelai taunted, smirking at Luke.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "We'll see who he likes better come dinner time."

"You fight dirty, Danes."

"Only way I know how."

Lorelai quirked an eyebrow at that comment. "No wonder we bicker so much," she said suggestively.

Luke frowned at her and said in a low voice, "Not in front of him," gesturing with his head to their son, once more engrossed in his action figure.

She rolled her eyes but acquiesced. "So where did we land on the boxes?"

"No maze."

"Ugh. Spoilsport."

"That's me."

"All right," Lorelai said, taking a deep breath and positioning herself as if she were going to get up. "Let's do this." Luke watched as she kept sitting. "Am I carrying boxes yet?"

"Nope," he confirmed, rubbing Will's back.

"Five more minutes."

"You packed up _four ornaments_," he repeated.

"I _know_; it was exhausting," she agreed, settling back down, this time burrowing into Luke's side. He put his arm around her shoulders, keeping the other around Will as the boy made nonsensical action noises.

"I promise all of it will be put away by the Second Annual Stars Hollow Martin Luther King Junior Appreciation Festival," Lorelai said, closing her eyes. "Which you're coming to."

"No way."

"We could have a booth," she continued, smiling as she felt Luke tense.

"No booth," he insisted.

She opened her eyes, tilting her head up to his. "MLK themed food. Two words: freedom fries."

"I want nothing to do with this!" Luke moved Will over to Lorelai's lap and stood quickly, grabbing his work gloves and yanking them on.

"I'm signing you up for the reenactment!"

Luke grabbed the tree in the middle and turned it sideways, hauling it to the back sliding doors. "No reenactment!"

"You'll make a great Dr. King!" Lorelai called after him, hearing the door slide open and a grunt as he stepped outside with the tree, a path of needles left across the room.

She wrapped her arms around Will and he squirmed. "Your dad is too easy," she told him, pressing a kiss to his head.

**XXX**


End file.
